A duvet is a bedding cover that provides warmth and style. Duvets are typically plush quilts or sacks filled with down, feathers, or synthetic fibers. A duvet cover is a removable, decorative, protective fabric shell or cover for covering a duvet, similarly to the way a pillowcase covers a pillow. One may change the look of his or her bed by changing the duvet cover, without changing the entire duvet. The duvet cover may be removed for washing.
It is important to keep the duvet cover securely attached to the duvet while in use so that the duvet does not get bunched up or otherwise displaced or rearranged within the cover. Duvet pins are currently available consumer products that are commonly used to pin duvet and duvet covers together.
Typically, duvet pins comprise a straight pin with a relatively broad head, like a large button head, and a sharp distal end. The user penetrates the pin through the fabric of the duvet and duvet cover, and the sharp end of the pin is received on the other side of the fabric by a pin receiver that receives and holds the distal end of the pin securely. The pin receiver is also relatively broad so that the fabric is held between the pin head and pin receiver. If a duvet pin becomes separated from the pin receiver under normal use, the purpose of the duvet pin is defeated and the exposed sharp point of the pin becomes a safety hazard. Many currently available duvet pins embody mechanical means for preventing separation, which means also make it difficult to intentionally disassemble the duvet pin and pin receiver from one another. For example, some currently available duvet pins require a magnetic key for disassembly, which creates even more inconvenience and is susceptible of being lost.
There is a need for a duvet pin that provides a quick, convenient, effective, more easily releasable, more reliable and safer means than a straight pin for pinning a duvet and duvet cover together.
The present invention is directed to an improved duvet pin that fulfills the foregoing needs. The present invention has broader application as a fastening apparatus for fastening objects.